What is this beer (but strong?)

[GodsStepBrother]

So pretty drunk as I write this, so excuse the idiocy of it all. Though I would like to state that I made this beer while still sober, the end result has me really excited. My current rotation of brewing involves, 2 or 3 session beers, and 1 high gravity specialty beer.

So today I just decided to brew a 15 alc content brew, just to experiment. I have loads of grain and hops at the moment so this is what I came up with.

Grain Bill.
Munich 4lbs
Chocolate 6 oz
White wheat 5oz
Roast 2 oz
Brown Sugar 5 oz
Flaked Barley 1.5 oz
Black Patent 1 oz
C-150 2oz
Biscuit malt 1oz
.35 oz of Norther brewer at 60
.25 oz of Chinook at 10

This is only a one gallon experimental batch.

I know it is super over zealous, but I am learning after all and I think it is worthwhile to realize what doesn’t work. I myself thought so much malt! So many different types of malt this is sure to fail. But I want to know what so much does to a beer.

I used spring water through out the whole brew. I mashed in and collected 1 gallon first running’s. Second running’s where about 1.5 gallons. My pre boil volume was just shy of 2.5 gallons. It took 2 hours and 38 minutes to boil down to 1 gallon (naturally I added hops around 60 and 10). I also added yeast energizer at the 15 minute, yeast nutrient and Irish moss, the brown sugar was added at the 10 minute mark.

Hydrometer readings:
1st running’s 1.062
2nd running’s 1.022
3rd pre boil 1.042
Halfway through boil 1.072 (I was bored waiting for the wort to boil down!)
O.G. (drum roll!!!) 1.140 (HOLY H*LL!)

I have never tried wort so potent! It was so sugary, astringency...ly, and just plain powerful! I took a sip and was meet with an unexpected powerful taste that I had to spit out!

WLP001 is what I am using to ferment and I got to go and aerate the crap out of this thing. Hopefully it ferments well.

cheers!

 

[bgruis]

Jeez dude!...that's quite the beer.....I'm no BJCP authority so I don't know quite where to put it style wise but .

Let me know how it turns out!

 

[GodsStepBrother]

Jeez dude!...that's quite the beer.....I'm no BJCP authority so I don't know quite where to put it style wise but .

Let me know how it turns out!

This beer knows no guide BJCP guidelines! Ill keep you updated though.

Woke up this morning and he is already bubbling away. I am thinking of naming it the Chuck Norris “you don’t decide when you drink this beer, it decides for you,” (which will take 20 years to mellow out hahahahha).:cross:

 

[Flywheel]

SchwartzQuint?

 

[Arneba28]

Double Imperial Black India Pale Ale?

 

[GodsStepBrother]

Just from the sample, it already tasted sort off like "bourbon county," I can't imagine how it will taste with alcohol in it.

Edit: You think it will be hoppy? wouldnt all that malt and alcohol mask the hop character.

 

[Flywheel]

I don't think it will be IPA hoppy. That's a thick wort that should lessen the hop isomerisation.

 

[GodsStepBrother]

It is thick, a little bit thinner than molasses. I also think the aging time will make the hops diminish more than anything.

 

[Flywheel]

Plug it into hopville.com, that'll give you the IBUs, BU:GU, etc. See what you come up with.

 

[GodsStepBrother]

I could not plug in the .35 oz of Northern Brewer hops, It was either .25 or .50; I just put .50 oz.

O.G. 1.152 (1.136 to 1.159)
F.G. 1.038 (1.034 to 1.041)
75® srm / 149® (Black)
114.6 IBU
Alcohol: 15.2 ABV%
Calories: 499 per 12 oz!!

I don’t think you can enjoy 12 oz’s though.

 

[Poobah58]

What yeast are you using to get to 15% alc?

 

[GodsStepBrother]

White labs Wlp 001 I want to see how far it will go if not i will dilute a bit and pitch a higher alc. yeast.

 

[GodsStepBrother]

Pretty Interesting stuff going on with this beer since I last posted. The beer ended up settling, by this I mean that ¾ of the fermenter looked like it had crude in it, very thick and just made it look like it was a solid mass. It looks like very dense cold break material and the yeast where only eating on the top ¼ of the beer. I was worried, didn’t know what this was and had never had a beer like this, imagine it like this picture but denser and the crude a lot higher.

I tried to take a picture, but it is so black that the camera could not pick it up. It fermented very hard for about a week and the crude got depleted to about 1/3 of the carboy. It seems that this crude was most likely the sugar from the mash? And the yeast consumed almost all of it. It is going very slow now, and I do not want to take a hydro reading yet (being that it is only a one gallon batch). Should I re-pitch some more WLP001? And see if it will kick back up? I also have a tripel yeast WLP500, and champagne yeast.

 

[C-Rider]

Two months have passed. What's the verdict?

 

[GodsStepBrother]

Well I have been very busy recently, but the wlp500 did cause another small fermentation I am going to borrow a friends refractrometer and see the abv. I will update once I taste it and also post some pic's.

 

[GodsStepBrother]

Two months have passed. What's the verdict?

Sorry I was super busy still and finally tried it today.

A local brewing club had a tasting today and midway through the tasting I decided to run home and get some of this beer from the fermentor. I took it to the tasting and all I can say is WOW! This beer was delicious. I was expecting it to be undrinkable with all that malt, and just how the beer looked in the fermentor. Almost half the fermentor was yeast, I used wlp001 and finished off with wlp500 triple yeast. I just opened the fermentor and poured about 3/4 of a 12 oz bottle with a funnel.

It was almost like an imperial Bock, with some roast added on to it. The munich malt stood out the most in the beer, followed by the roast and a warmness that came from the alcohol. Hop bitterness, aroma, and flavor where basically none existent, and there was no astringent flavor that I was expecting from this beer. I will definitely be brewing this again very soon, I can only imagine how much better it will be with carbonation, I might squeeze another 3 bottles from what's left (I hope). Everyone loved it, and I was told I had siphoned a commercial RIS into a new bottle.

I might add a bit more roast to this recipe and oak it for sure. If you have a chance and some extra ingredients, it is definitely worth the one gallon, I will try a 3 gallon batch next.

excuse me its 3:21 am and i need to get some sleep good night!